Fireworks
by PeaceLoveAndCheese
Summary: Percy and Annabeth comforted, Piper and Jason overcame fears, Frank and Hazel danced, and Leo helped them all. And they lived happily ever after, for now. Lovely bit of fluff featuring all your favorite couples.


**Yes, I know. I haven't updated any continuing things, just random pointless one-shots you guys aren't even reading, but I felt that I needed to write a one-shot for the Fourth of July, so I did. **

**If you don't live in America, then this day probably won't mean as much to you, but you can enjoy this little bit of Heroes of Olympus fluff and stuff. This also isn't a fic based on the American Fourth of July, just one of the traditions we do during the day. It was supposed to be that way, but it didn't end up.**

**Quick note for LaLaLand *meaning the rest of you don't have to read this*: I'm not sure if you'll read this and I'm sorry for not updating Forest of the Dead earlier, but here are the answers to your questions:**

**A/N: This stands for Author's Notes. In other words, the bold blocks of text I put at the tops and bottoms of chapters for you to bore yourself with. **

**POV: Point of View: the view of the character telling the story. For example, the entire PJO series is in Percy's POV and the Heroes of Olympus are in multiple POVs.**

**OOC: Out of character. Meaning that the character you are writing for is out of context with their personality traits established by the author. I'm always afraid of doing this.**

**OC: Original character. Meaning a character a fanfiction author puts into the story along with the other characters of the original author. Tai Lee and Becca are the OC's in _The Random Adventures of Demigod Heroes_**

**Hope that cleared things up!**

**For the rest of you: Expect updates for EVERYTHING this week, along with a couple of prompt fics, one Doctor whump thing that I've been working on and possibly a Harry Potter fic that has been sitting around for a month or so. Yes, I have been writing Harry Potter. Surprise? And the reason you get all this is because I will be leaving for camp on the 15th and I won't be home until the 26th, so that's almost two weeks of no updates. I will try my best to get all this done before then, but no promises. The least you'll get is another chapter of _The Forest of the Dead, The Rants of the Mighty Athena, _and _The Random Adventures of Demigod Heroes. _Okay? Okay. **

**DISCLAIMER: The person who wrote the stuff you just read and/or are going to read doesn't own these characters. **

**ENJOY THE FLUFF! :D**

* * *

Most holidays aren't universal everywhere in the world. Christmas is one of them, but it goes by different names with different traditions and not everybody in the world recognizes it. Easter, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, same thing. But there is one holiday that everyone recognizes as a day, but only three hundred million people in that world celebrate it.

It was the Fourth of July and the Seven on the Argo II were feeling rather homesick.

* * *

Percy was standing up on the bow of the ship, leaning on his elbows, bracing himself on the fore railing, staring out at the sea. His head was bowed, black hair falling into his eyes, making them unreadable.

"Hey," Annabeth said, coming up behind him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "You okay?"

"I'm fine," Percy said, tense underneath Annabeth's fingers. She looked at him dubiously. "Okay, no I'm not. It's just... usually we're at camp now. And we're doing something special, whether the campfire is turning red, white, and blue, or we're shooting off little fireworks before the big ones at the end of the summer, or we're pigging out on ice cream or even my _mom_ calling." He turned to her, eyes blazing with an underlying sadness. "I haven't heard my mom's voice in _seven months_, Annabeth! Seven months!" He slammed a fist down on the wooden railing and turned away from her. "I just... I just wish that... things could be... I don't know, _different_."

Annabeth didn't know what to say, so she put her arms around her boyfriend and pulled him into her grasp. He placed his face on her shoulder, arms weakly returning the hug.

"I know Percy," Annabeth said, staring out at the ocean, vast and unforgiving. "I do too."

* * *

"Jason?" Piper asked, moving around below decks on the Argo II. "Are you down here?"

She had been looking for her boyfriend for about an hour now and still hadn't found him. While Jason was the type to stand out in a crowd, when he wanted to blend in or, in some circumstances, disappear entirely, he was all too good at it. And sometimes, Piper and Leo couldn't even find him and they were his best friends. In some areas, his only friends, considering his memories hadn't been stellar in the past few months and he could barely remember his old life, much less his old friends sometimes. Now he had Percy and Annabeth and Frank and Hazel and the rest of his old friends (_Reyna_, Piper thought bitterly), but Piper felt that she knew Jason the best and she knew Leo did too, at least to a certain extent.

"Jason?" she called again, wandering further into the depths of the ships. She listened intently over the sounds of the ship's engines and from a few hallways down, she heard the sound of harsh breathing and metal clanging.

Piper pushed the door to the arena and there he was, pouring sweat, blonde hair plastered to his forehead, eyes wide and exhausted, sword banging and clanging against the training dummy as he whirled around the room like... well, like a whirlwind. He chopped the head of a dummy and struck the arm off the other, before twisting around in a 180 and hurling his sword diagonally across the room directly into the wall about three feet to Piper's right. He stood in a defense position, legs spread out, sword arm flung wide and chest heaving, eyes wild and unfocused for a minute before they rested on Piper and he straightened up and brushed his hair back with his hand.

"Hi, Pipes," he said. "What brings you down here?"

"Just looking for you," Piper said, leaning back against the wall. "What are you doing down here?"

"Nothing, just training," Jason muttered, wiping sweat from his forehead. He paused for a moment, arm paused near his head. "And thinking."

"About what?"

Jason began cleaning up, not directly looking towards Piper. "Nothing, it's... it's dumb."

Piper pushed herself off of the wall and started towards him. "I know you, Jason Grace, and you are _anything_ but dumb."

"I'm just... scared," he admitted. "Not of the quest, or dying, or failing, none of that. I'm scared that I'm going to lose-" His voice wavered slightly. "I'm afraid of losing you. Or Leo. Or Percy or Annabeth or Frank or Hazel or _anybody_. I've just found my old life and created a new one and I don't want any of it to be ruined. Hades, I'm even afraid of losing Coach, and that's sort of a new low." He hung his head, blonde hair trying to reach it's tips down to his eyes and failing. "Sorry. You didn't need to know that."

"Yes I did," Piper said, enveloping him into a hug, not even caring that he was sticky with sweat and she was wearing a new shirt. "And you needed to know that it's okay to be scared."

They stood in the arena like that for a long, long time.

* * *

Frank found Hazel in the stables. She was watching the ocean pass by them through the glass ceiling and Frank figured it was sort of like a torturous-happy thing she was doing.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked, stooping beneath the rafters as he joined her.

Hazel looked up. "I'm just watching."

"The ocean?" Frank sat down beside her. "The only one who does that is Percy. It's sort of a boring thing."

"I like it," Hazel said, curling her arms around her legs and hugging them to her chest. "It's sort of comforting. And big. And a reminder."

"A reminder of what?"

"How fragile life is," Hazel said. Immediately, the air around her seemed to grow thicker. "How easily it can be taken away and how small we are compared to the vastness of everyone else in the world and the universe. And it makes you think, Frank. Why does the world need you, just one little human in the great scheme of things?"

"Hey," Frank said, placing an arm around her shoulders. "Number one, don't say things like that. Number two, you're not just one little human, you're a demigod. And number three-" He took Hazel's face in his hand and tilted her chin up so he was looking into her eyes. "You may think that the world doesn't need you, but Frank Zhang sure does."

Hazel looked at him, her eyes wide and innocent and in danger of filling with tears. She gave a little gasp and threw her arms around him. "Oh, Frank!"

He hugged her back and when she finally let go, he stood up and held out his hand. "May I have this dance."

Hazel looked confused. "There's no music."

Frank shrugged. "We don't need it." He pulled her to her feet, taking one of her hands and placing his other hand on her waist. "Come on."

She giggled and fit her hands around his stance.

And together, they danced over the waves.

* * *

Leo observed.

From his position at the helm, he could see everything. Or everything that was important.

Percy and Annabeth were sitting against the mast, holding each other tight, and didn't seem inclined to let go for a long time. Jason and Piper were quietly talking almost directly below Leo. Frank and Hazel were walking, hand in hand, around the deck, Hazel laughing at Frank's jokes, which, frankly, Leo knew weren't as good as his. See, he just made a pun. _Frankly_. He was hilarious.

A series of clicks and squeaks reached Leo's ears. He smiled. "Okay, buddy. Let's give them a show."

The dragon masthead opened it's mouth just as Leo sent sparks from his hands to encircle around the ship. While some hovered in the air like Leo's own personal fireflies, the others were sent to their destinations.

_WHOOSH! _A fireball of color was sent shooting up into the sky, exploding over the ship and showering the sky in sparks. The six other demigods turned their heads upwards at the sudden noise, mouths open, half in shock and half in delight.

"Gotcha," Leo whispered. He sent a cascade of bright lights shooting out of his hands, purposefully cooled, to swarm around the ship, casting a shadowy, pretty light on his friends. More and more fireworks were shot off of the ship as Festus breathed fire, something Leo had been working on.

Any mortals who could see them now had to be incredibly jealous of the firework show in the sky.

The entire ship looked different. Frank was spinning Hazel around in a circle, her head thrown back and her mouth open in a laugh of delight. Jason had disappeared up into the sky with Piper, where they had there own personal view. Percy had Annabeth wrapped up in his arms, not so different from his posture before, but they were dancing among the lights now, heads close together and smiles on their faces, looking more content than Leo had ever seen either of them.

Leo looked over his ship again, flashing a small grin at his handiwork. He looked up at the sky, the showers of fire spreading across the sky and slowly falling into the ocean.

"Enjoy it while you can, guys," he whispered, sending a short, silent prayer to whatever gods happened to be listening at the moment. "It won't be long now."

And before he could decide what he meant, Leo went to join the world in celebration of new days, new hope, and new life.

* * *

_ Cause I know you know it can't get much better, fireworks flying whenever we're together. I know that you know that I know you love me. _

_And I know we'll see fireworks tonight. _

* * *

_****_**If you can tell me the song that the lyrics at the bottom of the story are from, you win virtual fireworks to aim at people as you wish! :D**

**Hope you enjoyed that little bit of romantic fluff I gave you there... I liked it.**

**Happy Fourth of July, everyone!**

**EDIT: This was completed, my time, at 11:39 PM, so it was technically done BEFORE July fourth ended. I just had to proofread it for another hour before posting. **


End file.
